The demand for trees to make wood products continues to increase. Effective management and harvesting of forests requires knowledge of the properties of the individual trees within the forest. For example, a particular industry might require a consistent supply of wood having a hardness that falls within a specified range of hardness values. To satisfy this need, the forester must identify and propagate trees possessing the desired hardness characteristic, and track these trees, and logs and boards derived therefrom, through the logging and milling processes.
Consequently, there is a need for methods that permit tracking information relating to the growth and processing of trees, such as the location and properties of trees, and the location and properties of logs or boards derived therefrom. Preferably, the methods permit the information to be stored in a device associated with the tree, and/or associated with processed wood derived therefrom (e.g., logs and boards), and updated when desired.